The beautiful thing about writing with the person that you love is that when they come up with an idea that is great, it's this dual happiness because that's the partner and that's such a good idea, and I'm proud of you, and then also I'm really excited for the project.
Melissa Rauch
When my husband came to my parents' house for the first time, he asked, 'Why is everyone screaming? Why are they so angry?' I said, 'No one's angry. This is just how we communicate.'
Years ago, when I started having this little bit of success as an actor, I got a job on 'VH1's Best Week Ever.' I went back to my mall in New Jersey, which is what I do when I go visit my parents, and I was at a Wetzel's Pretzels. The manager was like, 'I love the show! It's awesome!' and gave me a free pretzel. I was so excited!
I'm not full on 'Jersey Shore' Jersey, but in my heart, my bangs are so feathered with tons of hairspray. My husband says that whenever I get tired, it comes out.
My mom has a very high-pitched voice, and there are some similarities between her and the voice I use on 'Big Bang,' although my mom has the Jersey accent, so I took that out. But the tone of the voice is very similar to my mother's.
When I first went to acting school, they made me lose my accent, which is very upsetting for me. The first day of Shakespeare class, I remember the professor was like, 'Oh, boy. Oh no, no, no, no. No, no, no,' and sent me to a voice and speech class to get rid of the accent immediately.
I believe Gary Cole is one of the greats.
I love an arcade. I love a boardwalk game. But I also love a rollercoaster. Though I think the rollercoaster love comes from the fact that it took a really long time for me to reach the height requirement, so I promised myself very early on that when I reach that, I will not take it for granted.
We must take down the carnies. I think we need to start a campaign to defeat their scamming ways. I never win the boardwalk basketball game.
When I was out of work when I first moved to L.A., one of the first things my husband and I did was buy season's passes to Disney, and whenever I was bummed out about work, we would go to Space Mountain, and it was like a physical injection of anti-depressants.
My first waitress job was at Johnny Rockets in New Jersey, and then I waited tables at a sports bar.
I was kind of like the Rhea Perlman of the bar. I was like Carla on 'Cheers.' People were more afraid of me. There was a point where I got a little surly. There were only so many chicken wings I could serve before losing the smile on my face.
My fear is that, had I stayed in Jersey, I would have become Snooki because I'm just a bottle of hair dye away.
I knew from a young age that I wanted to perform. I went to an arts camp called Brookdale Arts Camp, in New Jersey, from the time I was 6, and then I was a counselor there through high school.
I was a theater dork in high school and did all the plays. My theater teacher in high school, Janet Spahr, was absolutely incredible and mentored me throughout school. She taught me a lot about relying on my instincts.
TV was my life, growing up. I ran home from school to watch television, and even did my homework with the TV on - my mom had a rule that as long as my grades didn't fall, I was allowed to. So it was my dream to work in television.
The live performance aspect of shooting a multicamera sitcom is wonderful. You have that instant audience reaction.
When I'm trying to find my way into a character, the voice and physicality are the first two things I do.
The thing that stand-up does for you is that it toughens you up a bit as far as the business goes. It's hard. If a joke doesn't get a laugh, that's instant rejection. And that's mostly what this business is most of the time: a lot of rejection.
I have always been a huge fan of gymnastics.
I was a very weird child. I was very shy, so in school I would just mimic stand-up sets of Whoopi Goldberg.
I remember watching 'Three's Company' with my parents, and it was time for bed, so I started to make my voice lower like Don Knotts and imitating him. They started laughing, and I didn't have to go to bed, so that informed a lot.
Voices have always been my way into a character. I usually approach the voice first.
I think fame is hard in any capacity. It's so fleeting; it's not anything that you can really grab.
There are so many male antiheroes but not nearly as many female antiheroes.There's a lot of pressure on female characters to be likable. That puts a lot of pressure on women to be likable.
One of my favorite movies is Bette Davis in 'All About Eve,' and it is shocking there was no pressure on her to be likable.
In the guest star situation on a show, it has a feel of a foreign exchange student - you're worrying the night before where you're going to sit for lunch. 'The Big Bang Theory' was like that. I was supposed to only do one episode. What was different was the cast and production staff was so welcoming, even though I was only scheduled for a week.
I don't really believe in regrets. I think everything happens as it should, and everything is an opportunity to learn.
'Big Bang' is very tightly scripted. Because we shoot in front of a live audience, it's basically like doing a filmed piece of theatre, really.
